On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    34 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Jan...

  • 

    MUSKETRY TEACHING- AND ARMY REFORM. IT i...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    The Spanish Crusaders. Nphe Spanish Army...

    of Moslems , to scorch up Infidel com crops * to shell Moorish cities is Christian ' , and holy work , and will secure Paradise for certain to all who leave their bodies on African soil ; but the war will r emain , for all this , as unjust as ever . The real cause of tliis iniquitous invasion is , that the Moors , aggravated , justly , more and more at the Spanish forts reared upon their shore , and encouraged by the demoralization ,. cowardice , and degradation of this race of so-called Christians , have latterly grown more and more audacious in their attacks ; many a camel load of Spanish heads has been lately driven into Fez—many a Spanish

    aggressor has been forced to plough the land he tried in vain to conquer ; many a Spanish soldiei % lounging over the embrasures of Ceuta or Melilla , has fallen back dead among his drowsy comrades , the just victim of some clumsy and despised Moorish matchlock . These attacks , growing in Melilla to a dangerous blockade , stimulated hy hurt national pride , restlessness of an unused army , and a general desire for booty , have at last roused the indolent ministers , and lit up a w-ai-j inconsequential and foolish enough to be called " a modern crusade , " to end perhaps as crusades have ended before .

    The Times correspondent , " coached" by Spanish officers almost as ignorant as himself of military matters , affects to laugli at the Moors , who cannot abide the bayonet , who are slow in firing , who wear dirty white robes , and carry antiquated arms . So laughed the Italian patricians when Valeuian rode forth to chastise Sapor arid the Persians ; so sneered our joimialists when English troops were sent to chastise the despicable Affghans , who slew us among their passes Eke slieep . To some men history teaches blankThe of the

    no lessons , and the past is a useless . bravery Swiss , and the victories of the Tyrolese , afford no lessons to a degraded people , bent on chastising an old enemy , with whom from the days of King Roderick they have never been at peace . Once the war was just ; but from the time that the Cross rose above the Crescent on the xed-beU-tow . er of the Alhambra , scaring the Moor from the rich plains that he loved so well and compared to those of Damascus , the Moor has once more got the right oh his side . . . dressed with his

    The Times may deride the scantily Moor , long cumbrous matcldock , and his fierce , but undisciplined cavalry ; but those who have seen the Moor and Spaniard side by side can laugh at the sophistries of a prejudiced reporter . The Moors , as competent observers fissure us , are tall , stalwart , clean-built men , of unimpeachable courage arid great strength . They dress light because of the burning climate , they are dexterous swordsmen and good shots . Some of their tribes are horsemen , fierce and skilful as the old Maiiaelukes or the murdered Janissaries—as superior to the ill-mounted Spaniards as our own Hussars are to our rustic yeomanry . They inhabit a

    the friendly Moors and their timely cargoes of beef . That rock is a sore sight to Spanish eyes . There may come a day when Moorish beef will again be needed at " Gib , " and Tetuan will be the nearest place to get it . The motive is not . a contemptible one-A man cannot fade death on potted meats , and Moorish oxen will again be sought . Gibraltar—that fattens on Moorish trade ,, that lives on the money of Moorish merchants , and that depends on Barbary for food—has surely no reason for wishing to see the Spaniards victorious . the need

    But if our conclusions are just , Moors no sympathy from us ' They -We right on their side and weapons in their hands . If their matchlocks are antiquated , their bullets can at least kill , and their enemies' lead can do no more . The Spaniardshave to drag their guns over a roadless country , Avhere unlimited numbers of men -will swarm around . them , arid cut them off piecemeal . A retreat from Moscow , with hot sand instead of cold snow , is before them , unless they keep prudently with one foot on sea and one on shore , their backs to Ceuta , ready ta safely retreat when a single rout sends them panic-stricken to

    their ships . The Moors have all Africa at their back , the desert steeps of Atlas , the populous cities of Tetuan , Tangiers , and Fez to retreat to ; they have broad plains for their troops of cavalry j mountain fastnesses for their matchlock men ; they have provir sions inexhaustible , and climate and disease ready to do their bidding . As long as the sea is open between them and Spain , we admit the Spaniards , even if defeated , with reasonable fortitude , are safe ; but once let them get entangled in trackless , passes , where cavalry cannot move or guns act ; let them be once netted in a maelstrom of sabreing Moorish horsemen , . howling ,,

    fierce , and irresistible ; let their powder blow ivp or become immovable on some pathless rock , then will the fates of Crassus and of Varus have their modern' parallels ; then will bragging cowardice and a desire for unjust conquest again meet its merited fate , and the Moors will for another generation be left alone by the Spanish crusader . Englishmen , as free and brave men , respecting all people--who fight for their own homes and own faith , whose children- still weep over the sufferings of tlie Waldenses , and rejoice over Napoleon ' s downfall in Russia , where Azrael , with his icicle

    javelins , smote his power to the heart , must sympathise with the invaded rather than the invaders . We have hot now , like men of " Chepe" in Richard ' s time , to exult in the Cross rising above the Crescent . Christianity was never spread by the sword . The religion that uses the ; sword to spread its doctrines must be a false one . We have no longer anything to fear from Mahommedanism ; the jaw-teeth of that monster were broken out longago at Lepanto ; its claws were clipped by Sobieskt ; its navy got a moral lesson " "betweenthe eyes , " to use one of Mr . Kingsley ' s metaphprs , at Navarino ; its Crescent will never grow to the full moon : but if anything could render dangerous and violent again the decrepit monster , it would be a persecuting and unjust war , such as Spain is now levying against the Moors .

    country without roads , and which-in the rainy season is impassable ; in winter , rains , coming down in deluge rivers , will torment and cow the Spaniards ; with the summer heat , a " dira coliors " of-fevers ' , wijil fight against the invaders , who will find their paltry artillery poor weapons against sun-strokes and the unseen blows of African malaria . Our renders , too , must remember that these Spaniards ai-e not the Spaniards of the Cid , or of Ferdinand and Isabella ' s reign . They are the degraded , priest-ridden , demoralised subjects of a modern Messalina , sona of the men who fled from the French whenever bayonets were crossed ¦—men who the Iron . Puke always spoke of with disgust , as Peterborough had done before : " her officers the greatest

    robbers , her soldiers the greatest cowards "—men who to this day hate us for winning the victories they deny we won . The Moorsj we must moreover remember , are men not enervated by civilization ' s down bed ; they are staunch believers in a pure Deism—in Morocfco less than in Turkey corrupted by Mahommedan innovations ; they fight for their wive ^ , children , and homes ; they know the country , and bide their time . Heat and famine will fight their , quarrel , mid-drive the Spaniard to his ships . As for Moorish civilization , even its ruins in Spain are certainly gronder than any Christian work existing in that country . The Alhambra , the Granada system of aqueducts , the Seville Giralda , are wonders of the world . What has Spain to show against

    these , but unfinished churches , ami plains , ugly palaces , and an impoverished people ? But apart from such reasons for rebtiking the Spaniard ' s unjust contempt , let us remember with , gratitude as Englishmen the kind relationships that have long existed between the Moors ond ourselves . It is from them wo get all the beef that keeps the bipod warm xouml the hearts of English garrisons at Gibraltar . The Moors have been our true friends ever since wo held , that bone of contention . But for them , there have been timos during French sieges when we should have been starved out over and over again . Lot us not imitate repudiating Spain's ingratitude , and forgot our " friends in needj" lot the Spanish historians leav

    34 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Jan...

    34 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ Jan . 14 , 1860 .

    Musketry Teaching- And Army Reform. It I...

    MUSKETRY TEACHING- AND ARMY REFORM . IT is still a common notion that the chief danger of a soldier ' s life in active service , arises from his liability tov wounds and death from the hand of the enemy ; arid war looks dreadful to civil eyes in proportion to the destructive nature of the weapons employed . No opinions , however , are more fallacious . Sir George Balling al quotes , with approval the remarks of Mr . Algock , in his " Notes on the British Legion in Spain : " " That the period of smallest loss to , an army is a victorious and . vigorously prosecuted campaign , with frequent battles and much marching ; " and every improvement in the efficiency of destructive implements has been marked by a diminution of the total loss on both aides . . The Crimean War was no exception to these ru ^ es ; the bulk of our lossos arose frpm want of vigour and

    capacity in our generals and heads of departments;—and when the real fighting had to be done , although it was of the moist murderous description while it lasted , it accomplished in a brief period results , which would have been obtained with greater delay , and at a heavier sacrifice , with inferior arms . Even in war , skill is beneficent , and ignorance the most cruel and destructive . The philanthropist may therefore look upon factories for the fabrication of rifles and Armstrong guna as benevolent

    institutions , and , without muoh violence to his imagination , regard instruction iu musketry as the teaching of a Royal Humane Society for the preservation of human life . To diminish the sanguiutiry waging of war to the lowest possible point , and to do what must be done as scientifically as possible , is the problem of statesmanship applied to military affairs ; and it is gratifying to know that our lumbering machinery of Horse Guards and War-office is moving , though slowly , in the right direction , and may , by adequate whipping-up on the part of the

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14011860/page/6/